Clinton Attends the Second Summit of the Americas, April 18-19, 1998 (Human Rights Watch, 18-4-1998)

(04/18/98) -- Human rights is one of four items on the agenda for the thirty-four leaders who will gather in Santiago, Chile for the summit. We at Human Rights Watch have prepared this briefing packet to familiarize you with the human rights situation in several countries in the region.

The hemisphere enjoys a growing consensus that democratically elected government works best. With scant exceptions, the hemisphere stands out as one of the few areas of the world where elected civilian governments appear firmly ensconced. Unfortunately, respect for human rights has not kept pace with progress in democratization. Torture, police brutality, arbitrary detention, the harassment of journalists, and even extrajudicial executions are still prevalent throughout the region. U.S. leadership on these issues, meanwhile, has been undermined by its failure to ratify the hemisphere's key human rights treaty, the American Convention on Human Rights.

The following packet includes information on human rights violations in nine countries that have received particularly close attention from Human Rights Watch (though this doesn't mean that human rights problems don't exist in other countries in the hemisphere). More detailed information about any of these countries is available through the executive director of our Americas division, Jose Miguel Vivanco, who will be on the ground in Santiago, or through our Washington and New York offices.

Countries covered in this packet:

Argentina

Brazil

Chile

Columbia

Cuba (the only country in the hemisphere excluded from the summit)

Haiti

Mexico

Peru

The United States